Social and Influencer > Online Video
DROGA5, New York / UNDER ARMOUR / 2016
Overview
Credits
CampaignDescription
In football, one thing unites every player, from the youngest kid to the biggest star: there’s always another challenge to face—another giant to slay—whether it’s to score a first goal, make a roster or defeat the next opponent.
Under Armour’s “Slay Your Next Giant” inspires footballers to never rest on their laurels—to battle and conquer the next giant on their journey.
The last thing any footballer does before taking to the pitch is lace up. So we turned ordinary laces into a canvas that would become a motivational tool, by printing what each player wants to conquer next directly on them.
Execution
On SlayYourNextGiant.com, six separate videos (starring six different athletes) play simultaneously, allowing visitors to toggle between athletes without buffering. As the action unfolds, each footballer removes his shoelace, signifying that he’s slain a giant.
Using HTML5 video, JavaScript and WebGL, we created a web experience that showed how all players—from a schoolboy in Brazil to Memphis Depay, Manchester United’s promising young winger—are unified by the desire to battle their next giants.
People were then prompted to share their own giants on a 3D rotoscoped shoelace. Bespoke versions were created to vary depending on users’ geographic locations. For users in Brazil, for example, the website featured a Portuguese voiceover.
To launch the campaign, we printed laces for Under Armour–sponsored athletes and teams. These athletes then shared their laces and giants on Twitter and Facebook, resulting in a barrage of laces on social media.
Outcome
Our campaign goal was to establish Under Armour as an authentic voice in football on a global scale, while also providing players with a new motivational tool.
To date, SlayYourNextGiant.com has attracted visitors from 159 different countries. These visitors exceeded all expectations by spending an average of 2:30 interacting with the brand. Users have also created more than 15,000 laces on the site.
Strategy
Although Under Armour has experienced enormous growth in the sportswear category, it’s still far behind Nike and Adidas in the global football market. Our goal was to establish Under Armour as an authentic voice in the world of football by embracing the brand’s underdog spirit.
The football category largely celebrates the spoils of being a famous athlete, not the hard work that gets you there. But young, serious athletes need motivation as they strive to realize their lofty goals. It isn’t helpful to fill their heads with visions of supermodel girlfriends and sports cars.
Our strategy was to make Under Armour the choice for players with the mental strength to face challenge after challenge head-on. Our message: Don’t worry about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Slay your next giant, and everything else will fall into place.
Synopsis
The magical thing about football is its unpredictability. On any given day, an outmatched minnow can slay a giant with a scrappy goal in extra time. But in the modern game, money is threatening that magic. Wealthy clubs spend huge sums of money to hoard star players. And most brands celebrate the spoils of stardom and gloss over the work and effort required to get there. Our objective was to establish Under Armour as an authentic voice in football by inspiring players young and old to face their next challenges.